


Cats.

by BandsforBreakfast



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Animal Shelter, Cats, Cute, Fluff, Happy, M/M, like a lot of cats, so many cats, weird ending but like funny weird but also like wth just happened weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 06:21:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4776836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BandsforBreakfast/pseuds/BandsforBreakfast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh goes to an animal shelter to adopt a cat, maybe two. Tyler works at the shelter. Josh is good with cats. Tyler is very good with Josh. Josh likes Tyler's butt at some point. I'm good with summaries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cats.

_Ohio Animal Shelter_. This should be it. Josh took a deep breath and pushed open the door.  
"Hi there. How can I help you?" a guy about his age appeared. Nice.  
"Um, yeah, I would, eh, I would like to adopt a cat. Please."  
Josh had always wanted a cat. Sadly, his dad never allowed them to get one, but now he finally moved out of his parent’s house - and he was going to get a cute lil’ kitty cat all for himself.  
"Well, you're at the right place. What's your name?"  
"Joshua Dun."  
"Cool. I'm Tyler."  
Tyler stretched out his arm and Josh shook his hand while looking up into his eyes. A hint of a smile showed on his face, and Josh got distracted for a second, which made the handshake last just a little too long.  
Or too short, if you asked Josh.  
"Okay, now follow me," Tyler said, turning around, "you look like you want to meet some furry friends."  
  
Josh's eyes grew large. He didn't know where to look. To his left and right, cages with the softest looking dogs ever ("I brush all of them every morning, they love it."), further down the isle were the cats ("They are so cute you have no idea, I just don't understand how people could leave them behind, you know?") and in front of him, a pair of fantastic-looking skinny jeans.  
Really great jeans.  
Very nice... fabric.  
"Be careful though, these are mostly stray animals so it might take a while for them to trust you enough to let you come closer and pet them." Tyler looked over his shoulder at Josh, who quickly fixed his eyes on the animals instead of Tyler's... jeans, and ignored the fact that a blush was creeping up on his face. And oh my, Tyler was right: these cats were *adorable*.  
He crouched down at the first cage, which held two black-and-white cats, nearly identical. The cats immediately backed away but he held out his hand for them to sniff it.  
"Ah, now these are two of the shyest-" Tyler said, but then stopped mid-sentence. They were already pressing their snouts into his hand and allowing Josh to softly pet their backs and scratch that spot right under their chins.  
"Okay dude, who are you?" Tyler exclaimed, eyebrows lifted sky-high.  
"They literally never act like this. Never. Like, heck, they barely even come to ME! The guy who feeds them every day!"  
Josh laughed while the perplexed guy sat down on his knees next to him.  
"Look!" And yes, the pair did indeed jump back from him instinctively. But Josh beckoned them to come closer again, softly telling them that ‘it’s okay, he’s the good guy – he’s my friend – here, look, everything is fine – right, that’s it – there you go’. Cautiously, they progressed forward again, alternating between looking at the safe guy and the scary man who also held out his hand. One of them carefully dared to sniff his hand while the other watched, ready to bounce away if anything happened.  
But nothing happened. Josh slowly stroked their fur to let them know it was okay, and Tyler, still a bit shocked, followed.  
“This is insane.” Tyler whispered, staring at this hands like they weren’t really his. Josh just smiled.  
“So what are their names?” he asked.  
“Well, we don’t really give them names here. They can’t stay here forever, you know – we just don’t have the resources. And if nobody takes them home…”  
“Oh.”  
Previously he had been freaking out a little bit on the inside because this really cute guy was next to him, their arms occasionally brushing against each other and they were both wearing short sleeves so it was just bare skin-on-skin and wow I think our fingers just touched oh my- but now that made him a little sad.  
“Let’s think about the good part though: you’re gonna take one home!” Tyler tried to lift the mood. And it worked. Because come on, who could look into those squinty eyes and not feel every bad feeling ever disappear? Josh sure couldn’t.  
“Let’s go check out the next ones, we have a few more to go.”  
  
They went to some other cats and the same thing happened a few times more: Tyler trying to explain that these ones really weren’t very interactive or something, but then when they looked at Josh, it’s as if he was some weird cult leader which they all obeyed. Tyler’s jaw dropped more in one day than it had done in the past five years of his life.  
“Now, I have to admit, this one might be my favourite.” Tyler said, approaching a dark, slender cat with jet black fur and dark eyes.  
“I call her Ruby.” He seemed hypnotised as it walked towards the bars in a very gentle kind of way. Josh tilted his head slightly as he watched the interaction between the two. It seemed almost as if they… connected. It felt like the moment lasted for hours, the feline stepping around the crouched human as if the floor was made of clouds, rubbing its cheek against his legs and arms while the human stroked the shiny fur tenderly, around the small nose, to the forehead, between and behind the ears all the way to the tail. Then it crawled on his lap, rested its head in his hand and closed its eyes.  
“She is beautiful.” Josh breathed.  
Tyler carefully put her down on the ground again, smiling sheepishly at Josh's comment.  
"Yeah. She's special."  
  
The next one, big and fluffy with birght orange fur, was playful. Very playful. Perhaps a bit _too_ playful. It already jumped on Josh right when they opened the cage door, very interested in his many colourful bracelets. After energetically toying around with those for a while, it decided that the view would be a lot better from the top of Josh's head. So it climbed, and Josh tried to cooperate by lifting him up, but it didn't quite like that, and, with a meow, Josh earned a nice little scratch on his temple. It was barely even bleeding, but Tyler kind of freaked out and said he absolutely needed to put a band-aid on it. The cat was put back in the cage, the boys retreated to a small room resembling a kitchen, and right now Josh was feeling a lot of feelings.  
He had been put in a chair, Tyler was bending over and coming very close to his face to stick the band-aid on. Moving in slow motion, his fingertips touched the skin around the tiny wound to make sure it would fit perfectly.  
"Hold still." he said, keeping his eyes fixed on where he was going to stick it. But apparently Josh was not very good at holding still, because Tyler found it necessary to hold his head still for him. By cupping his jaw. Josh had to focus all of his attention on breathing normally while his stomach was practicing backflips. It felt like Tyler's hand was a thunder cloud, attacking Josh's skin with electric lightning bolts everywhere it touched him.  
He couldn't help but study Tyler's face, up close he noticed all the small details, like he could almost count the little hairs of his stubble.  
Tyler's asymmetrical eyebrows, his uneven hairline, the crooked teeth that showed when he smiled: they were all perfect. Josh let his eyes slide over the boy's mesmerising features. His dark eyes, his nose (which made Josh feel like it needed to be booped), his lips. His lips. Slightly puckered from concentration. A bit dry, making them all the more attractive. Josh would gladly help wet them with his own, perhaps while stroking his jaw, feeling that rough stubble, his other hand in his neck and... oh. The lips were now suppressing a smile. Josh looked up and saw Tyler looking at him, eyes crinkling with that sparkle in them that could bring world peace. Josh swallowed in embarrassment - Tyler probably saw him staring creepily at his mouth like he was going to devour him or something. How long had he been doing that? Was it just a glance? Was it a couple seconds? Ten minutes? He had no idea; in all honesty, he could probably look at that face and accidentally die because he forgot to, like, breathe.  
Josh was still looking at Tyler. Tyler was looking right back. His hand had not moved. In fact, his thumb was dangerously close to the edge of Josh's mouth. Then Tyler's face grew bigger. Tyler got closer. Josh tilted his head ever so slightly. Their faces were only inches apart.  
Suddenly, a loud barking from behind them startled them both to the point where Josh yelped and almost fell off his chair.  
"Shit- I, the dogs are freaking out in their cages- I'm sorry, I- I gotta check that out, sorry, hold on-" And with that, Tyler was gone.  
Josh inhaled and sighed deeply and let himself fall back into the seat. Did that just happen? I mean... okay. He's probably just seen too many movies lately. He got scratched, Tyler put a band-aid on his face, laughed at Josh staring, and that's it. That is all that happened. He didn't overreact on that tiny wound so they could go back here and he could kiss him. He didn't put his hand on his cheek because of some sort of attraction, it was to hold his face still. He didn't actually lean in towards the end - Josh was just imagining things again. Now he was going to forget any of that happened, go back there and just talk about cats.  
  
"So... did you have any particular cat in mind?"  
"Yes. No. All of them"  
Tyler chuckled. "Yeah, same. But-"  
"No, seriously. All of them." Josh didn't look like he was joking.  
"What? Oh."  
"Yes."  
"You realise that that is a lot of cats, right? Like, a _lot_."  
"Yes."  
"Well..." Tyler just stood there, baffled. "okay. That, eh, is going to be a lot of paperwork for me."  
"Don't worry though, you can keep Ruby."  
"Right. Thanks."  
A moment of a kind of awkward silence passed between them.  
"So do I just take them home now or-"  
"Yeah, yeah, sure, yeah. We also sell cat food in the front, you might wanna get like, a big stash-"  
"Yeah, sure, of course."  
"Yeah."  
"Yeah."  
  
After Josh got a decent amount of food and he and Tyler were standing outside surrounded by cats, he found it was a bit of a struggle to get things to his home.  
"Could you maybe help me get things to my apartment?" he asked, looking at Tyler apologetically.  
"Yes, of course!" he answered.  
"It's not far from here, it's just around the block."  
They both took up a few plastic bags, made sure the cats were following (they all listened to Josh, obviously) and went on their way. Luckily, it was a lot easier to chat while walking because Josh didn't have to constantly look at Tyler and get distracted by his angelic face and all that. They actually had quite a few similar interests they could discuss - mainly music. That greatly lifted the weird tension between them, and before they knew it, they were in front of Josh's door.  
"Thanks so much for helping me out today." Josh said.  
"Hey, no problem." Tyler smiled. "I could give you my phone number, so you can call me if you need anything. Or realise that maybe adopting fifty cats was not such a good idea after all."  
Josh laughed but handed him his phone. Tyler took it and put his number in with as many cat emojis as the box allowed him to.  
"So I guess I'll be going now." he said.  
"Yeah. Thanks for the cats and all that." Josh chuckled.  
"If you need anything, don't hesitate to call me. Doesn't have to be cat-related."  
Then Tyler said bye. Then Tyler left. Then Tyler was gone.  
Josh went inside and leaned his back against the door, heart pounding in his chest. _Doesn't have to be cat-related._ What did Tyler even mean with that? Josh hesitated for a second. Then he took out his phone and scrolled through his contact list, pressing the little _call_ icon next to Tyler's name. He answered almost instantly.  
"Hey."  
"Hey. Would you maybe like to come in for a drink?"  
It only took half a second for Tyler to rush back up and enter Josh's apartment.  
  
There were cats everywhere.  
Everywhere.  
Cats on the floor, cats in the closet, cats in the cupboards, cats on the table, cats on the chairs, cats anywhere you turned your head. There was no escaping them. Josh was grinning from ear to ear.  
Tyler hesitated for a moment, then began lifting some off the small couch to try and create room for him to sit while Josh put two cokes on the table. Josh sat down on the arm rest with his back turned to Tyler but his face looking into the room. Tyler couldn't help but smile because he just looked so genuinly _happy_.  
Josh really was a magical person when it came to cats. Tyler suspected he was probably the son of some ancient Egyptian cat-god. Wouldn't be surprised if he started shapeshifting right now... I wonder if he hides a tail down those trousers. Only one way to find out, I guess.  
Tyler realised where his thoughts were heading now and quickly tried to keep a straight face and flush his mind clean with coke. Okay, okay. Let's not go there again. Josh was probably not interested anyway. 

There was a soft meow and Josh looked down to see a big red fluffball with a familiar look in his eyes. A look that meant no good.  
"Oh no." Josh said.  
Everything happened quickly.  
The cat looked up, swaying its tail, and jumped. Josh instinctively tried to dodge the attack by leaning back, but he lost his balance and fell backwards right into Tyler's lap, with his elbow hitting Tyler's knee, which sent Tyler bending over in pain with his face planted into Josh's stomach - who happened to be ticklish so he also bent over with a shriek, weirdly folding Tyler's head between his legs and his chest and then releasing him again, his legs flopping back down onto the arm rest and Tyler turning his head to look down at Josh.  
They froze for a second.  
Then they burst out into hysterical laughter.  
"I'm so sorry, " Josh tried to apologise while gasping for air, "I- he-"  
But another wave of laughter hit him because Tyler's face was all red and he was almost crying, not even noticing Josh's weight was cutting off the blood circulation in his legs. Josh was clutching his stomach, Tyler was hitting the couch repeatedly, and all the cats around them were just kind of confused. Josh's cheeks turned red too, because he was laughing so hard and also maybe because he was realising that his lower back was pressed against Tyler's legs. And now he was deliberately not getting up.  
Bur honestly, the weirdness of the situation and their position left no room for embarrassment. At one point Josh made a weak attempt to get off, but just as he had pushed himself up with his arms, his elbows gave in and he fell back down again, and Tyler laughed at him and Josh laughed at Tyler and so on and so on.  
In some miraculous way, though, their lungs got tired and their muscles hurt so bad, they were forced to quiet down a bit and wipe the tears from under their eyes. And then they just sat in silence.  
Their eyes found each other, little leftover smiles around their lips, and neither of them looked away. Tyler's brown eyes sparkled and Josh could feel his heartbeat speed up because, holy shit, he needed extra oxygen to not just faint here and now-  
Oh.  
There was no mistaking now.  
Tyler was coming closer. Josh's breath got stuck when Tyler leaned in and closed his eyes, while Josh's eyes grew wider and he froze.  
He seemed to be entering an eternity of time between now and the moment their lips connected. They were only inches apart, the soft breaths mixing in the space in between them, to be inhaled and exhaled again and again and again until finally, after years of floating in that eternal moment, their lips touched.  
Josh felt like he'd just walked out of a snowstorm into a warm, cozy room, out ot the sharp wind - it felt like someone wrapping a soft blanket around his body, his muscles relaxed, his eyes slowly closed and Tyler's warm lips sent a spark into his brain that made everything fuzzy and all he could think and see and know and feel was Tyler, Tyler, Tyler.  
They kissed, and yes, Josh's hand went up to stroke the stubble on Tyler's face, and yes, it was as perfect as he'd imagined.  
Josh shuffled a bit to make their position more comfortable, and Tyler felt something peculiar about Josh's legs. Like there was something else there. Almost as if his spine has been stretched out and grew out of his body, but softer and... then, with a shock, he realised.

**Author's Note:**

> HOPE U LIKED IT and please tell me what u think and if there's any typos or confusing bits
> 
> stay street ur cool


End file.
